Effective leadership communication is essential for productive business operations. A great number of organizations and projects failed due to poor leadership and team communication. On the other hand, effective communication can be of great benefit to the firm and its employees. I would like to propose an implementation of effective leadership communication strategies such as transparent communication and feedback loops to improve the workflow of your company.
Impact of Effective Communication of the Organization
To fully understand the impact of effective communication on the organization, it is important to consider the drawbacks that come from the lack of it. For example, a newly formed startup receives funding for a project that could disrupt an existing industry. The leader of the startup has a great technical talent but little leadership experience. The team working on the project is experienced despite their age and is perfectly capable of completing it in time. Unfortunately, the CEO of the startup refuses to communicate with anyone from the team itself and only relies on the team manager to deliver information.
When the deadline for the project comes, several issues arise because they were never addressed. By refusing to directly communicate with the team, the CEO failed to provide a plan to deal with the issues that were unforeseen in their original vision. The assigned team manager did their job in communicating with the team, but several issues combined with basic team management prevented them from delivering all the information to the CEO. This showcases the barriers that can prevent effective communication. When people in charge are not able to receive information, they are just as unable to provide it. In the worst cases, leaders themselves prevent communication due to weaknesses of character.
To prevent such issues, a strict ethos of transparent communication has to be implemented. This means that every person in the company should be able to freely communicate with people from higher and lower positions in the hierarchy of the organization. Then, a feedback loop should be established between the CEO and the team. It should approximately resemble the following model. Initially, the CEO states the vision and the plan for the project. Then the team starts working on the project according to the plan. When an issue arises, the team provides feedback to the CEO and requests a solution for the issue. The feedback of the CEO is used, and then the work continues until the next issue arises. Both sides should be involved in the process of feedback to not only solve the issues of the project but also to have constant communication about its state.
These and other tools of effective communication will require special training sessions to be implemented into the workflow of the company. However, their effect is likely to resolve and prevent a great variety of issues.
Technology plays an important role in effective communication. While small firms may be able to communicate face-to-face on all levels of operation, large firms do not have the time to address every issue personally. This is why technological solutions are essential to establish effective communication. These solutions may include company-wide e-mail, phone networks, fax, and even proprietary inter-company social networks. The purpose of these technologies is to deliver information instantaneously and with an ability to archive it for later use. For this goal, technology should be reliable, easy to use, and fast to process large amounts of information.
Ethical dilemmas may arise, however. For example, if communication is transparent, would not the CEO lose their status? Is it perhaps better to keep the top management as unreachable figures of authority? The answer to this particular dilemma is negative. Implementation of transparent communication within the company has shown to be a massive improvement to the image of the CEO and top management. It is one of the main components of the so-called “authentic leadership,” which inspires confidence and respect in the team leader through effective communication and exemplary work. Another dilemma lies in who should the leader trust when two people provide different solutions to the same problem. This conflict has two solutions. The first is to investigate the potential success of either solution and choose that which is the most effective, while the other is to seek a compromise between the parties involved. No one should be discriminated against, however, and every solution should be considered.
By utilizing effective communication in the decision-making process of the company it may experience great benefits. In a company that has poor communication, even small issues may take a long time to be solved, or in worst cases, their solutions may create new issues. When the input of the team is considered, this is not the case. Members of the team are capable of providing original solutions that are often overlooked by others.
Effect of Quality Leadership Communication on Employees
Quality leadership communication has a variety of positive effects on the employees of the organization. Research indicates that by implementing transparent communication, employee job satisfaction, productivity, and overall happiness rises dramatically. The reasons for these effects are various. Transparent communication eliminates the often illusionary barrier of untouchability from top management. Even companies where people in high positions are glad to receive feedback, employees might be intimidated to provide it. Without this barrier team members find leaders more relatable and approachable.
Transparency also removes a level of stress that comes with intimidation by authority figures. When an employee cannot ask the leader for clarification or advice, they are likely to worry and even panic in some situations. When effective communication is present, employees feel like they are a part of an organization that they would like to support and advance. Leaders are likely to receive more respect in such situations and employee morale greatly improves. A similar effect comes from the implementation of a proper feedback loop (Jiang & Men, 2017). People who not only receive timely feedback but are also able to send feedback of their feeling like they have a voice in the company and a direct effect on its operation.
Improvement of the Organization as a Whole
The previously mentioned aspects are guaranteed to have a positive effect on the workflow of the company. By freely communicating with each other, employees can streamline the work process. The vision for the project is always clear, and if any questions or ideas are presented during development, they may be addressed and implemented immediately. Team morale is likely to be high in such organizations and levels of stress should remain manageable overall. One of the most important components for the organization as a whole is feedback. This system enables both the team and its leader to address all the issues of the project, without overlooking them. This should lead to more projects meeting deadlines with a higher quality of work. There are always issues that are left unforeseen if the feedback is inconsistent.
Three Top Benefits
Three top benefits apply to all organizations that practice effective communication. The first is team building. By communicating, members come to know each other, as well as their work responsibilities. When a person understands that their work affects the work of their colleagues, they are more likely to be more dedicated to their job. The second benefit is employee morale. The effects of effective communication of employees were already presented in the proposal, but the value of morale should not be understated. High morale leads to deadlines being met, and issues being fixed. Finally, the third benefit is increased productivity. When the roles of employees are clear, and they are aware of each part of the process, they can completely focus on their tasks. Leaders begin to understand all the resources available to them, which enables better management to take place.
Effective Leadership Communication in a Crisis
By implementing the proposed tools of effective communication, an organization is likely to be better equipped to deal with crises. Crises can often sneak up on management when effective communication is not practiced. Mistakes, oversights, and resource shortages can combine into one large problem with no easy solution. Even companies that practice effective leadership communication may encounter a crisis beyond their control as a result of a natural disaster, failure of the stock market, or terrorist activity. The way that effective leadership communication helps organizations to deal with such issues is sensible. By enabling the team to contribute solutions and strategies, the leader should have a lot of options to consider when dealing with a crisis (Men, 2014). People of different departments may have different ideas that could be tailored for a specific issue.
By establishing a standard of effective communication through the implementation of transparency, an organization allows all employees to contribute to the solution of the issues at all times. The successful animation studio Pixar has greatly benefited from allowing its members to communicate problems with its projects and even address the problems without involving top management.
Effects of My Strategy
Throughout the proposal, I have described a great number of benefits to the implementation of effective communication through transparency and feedback loops. These tools should enhance the organization by improving the morale of its employees, informing the CEO of all the issues of the project, providing varied solutions to issues, and creating a team that wants to support the company (Wang & Hsieh, 2013). These are only some of the most evident benefits that should lead to quality projects being completed on time.
Conclusion
Effective leadership communication may appear to remove power from the CEO, but instead, it inspires respect and productivity. Companies who practice such communication have experienced great enhancements. Every aspect of work, from daily tasks to crisis management and employee morale can be improved. Therefore, there is no sensible reason to not implement tools such as transparent communication and feedback loops.
References
Jiang, H., & Men, R. (2017). Creating an engaged workforce. Communication Research, 44(2), 225-243.
Men, L. (2014). Internal reputation management: The impact of authentic leadership and transparent communication. Corporate Reputation Review, 17(4), 254-272.
Wang, D., & Hsieh, C. (2013). The effect of authentic leadership on employee trust and employee engagement. Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 41(4), 613-624.